The Winemaker's Corner · Guides
Guides for winemakers
Practical guides for home winemakers and small wineries: sulfites, fermentation, acidity and more, with worked examples and free calculators.
- Winemaking guide · Cold stabilization Crystals in wine: what they are and how to prevent them Crystals in wine are tartrate (KHT), not glass, and harmless. Prevent them by cold stabilizing: 1–3 weeks near 0 °C, or seed 4 g/L KHT for 4 hours.
- Winemaking guide · Protein stability How much bentonite? Protein stability in white and rosé wine White and rosé wines usually need 10–100 g/hL of bentonite, but only a bench trial and an 80 °C heat test tell you how much. Run one, then scale up.
- Winemaking guide · Malolactic fermentation (MLF) Malolactic fermentation: how to do it and when it's done Malolactic fermentation turns malic acid into lactic, cutting TA by 0.56 g/L per g of malic. Run it at 18–22 °C with no SO₂; it's done below 0.1 g/L.
- Home winemaking guide · Sulfites How much sulfite to add to wine, and when Aim for 0.5 mg/L molecular SO₂ in reds and 0.8 in whites. At pH 3.6 a red needs about 31 ppm free SO₂. A pH table, a worked example and a free calculator.